Pedagogy Of The Oppression Analysis

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Recommended: Paulo Freire's reflection on oppression and injustice

The book Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire discusses many ways in which people are oppressed and how many oppressors dehumanize people. One way Freire describes oppression is the fear of freedom. Freire defines fear of freedom as: However, the oppressed, who have adapted to the structure of domination in which they are immersed and have become resigned to it, are inhibited from waging the struggle for freedom so long as they feel incapable of running the risk it requires. (47) When I was 19 years old I experienced fear of freedom for the first time. In this essay I will talk about how my ex-husband, Josh Eckert, imposed a fear of freedom on me starting in the middle of our marriage up until the day I decided to leave. When I was 14 …show more content…

Our daughter was born six weeks early and had a tough time nursing. Josh would blame me for that saying that it was my fault that she came early because I didn't take care of myself while I was pregnant. At first, I was able to write it off as frustration and tiredness, but the degrading verbal abuse didn't end there, it just continued to get worse. When my daughter was two weeks old he told me that I should give her up for adoption. He would say that I wasn't a good mom and that I couldn't take care of her the way a real mom would. He constantly told me that I couldn't do anything right so what made me think I could raise a child right. Again, I made excuses for him and resolved that I would just try harder to show him that I could be a good …show more content…

When I finally got up the courage to confront him about it he got very angry that I would dare to question something he was doing. He excused his behavior by telling me that this other woman never complained, she was skinnier than i was so that made her more fun to have sex with. He told me that she actually took care of herself and knew how to take care of him. All of these things were so crushing to my spirit. I tried to talk back but as soon as I started to he slapped my face. I fought back and then he took my head and slammed it in the door. That was my awakening moment. I knew this had gone too far and I needed to

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